Those in their 20’s think they are special and are more at risk of depression

According to an academic report, youngsters belonging to generation Y, in other words those who were born between the 80’s and 90’s and who are now roughly aged between 20 and 30 have an exaggerated sense of entitlement but lack the work ethics they need to achieve their goals, can’t take criticism, and basically think they are special.

However, the result of this is that far from the self fulfilment they seek, they end up with unrealistic expectations, which inevitably leads to disappointment and depression says the researchers from the University of Hampshire.

Professor Paul Harvey carried out a number of studies on this group of youngsters known as Gen-Yers, also sometimes called the Millennium generation or the Boomerang Generation because they keep coming back to live at home.

Harvey found that they scored 25 percent higher on psychological tests measuring entitlement and narcissism than those aged 40 or over and 50 percent higher than those aged over 60.

As well as this, Gen-Yers were twice as likely to rank in the top 20 percent in their level of entitlement “highly entitled range” as someone between 40 and 60 and four times more likely than those over 60.

According to Professor Harvey, this “very inflated sense of self” gets ingrained in the youngsters when they are young which stems from the self esteem movement telling kids “you’re great, you’re special” and their subsequent failure leads to “chronic disappointment”.

Professor Harvey also maintains that this generation have an automatic “knee-jerk” response to being criticized and will just dismiss it.

“Even if they fail miserably at a job, they still think they’re great at it,” says professor Harvey, reported in the Telegraph.

However, the down side is that they are not happy, have higher levels of depression and an unjustified level of self esteem which masks the reality.

The Telegraph also reports a separate study conducted by researchers from Kennesaw State University in Georgia, which is soon to be published in the Journal of Management, which shows that this generation want high salaries but more leisure time, two goals which are obviously hard to come by.

“They want the time off. They want the big bucks. The findings really support the idea that they’re entitled” said an assistant professor of management at Kennesaw, Stacy Campbell.